From the WSJ Opinion Archives
GOP
on the Edge
The Los Angeles Times notes an interesting trend in political demographics:
In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. . . .
These growing areas, filled largely with younger families fleeing urban centers in search of affordable homes, are providing the GOP a foothold in blue Democratic-leaning states and solidifying the party's control over red Republican-leaning states.
Many agree that in these high-growth communities, as in much of the South, identification with the GOP has become a kind of cultural and social statement that also carries along voters who might be more open to Democrats in a less conservative environment.
"It's possible that the nature of these places changes people," said Mellman, the Kerry pollster. "If you are in, say, Montgomery County [Maryland], you are talking to other Democrats, your friends and family. Then all of a sudden you move to Loudon County, Va., and your social networks are dominated by Republicans."
What the Times only hints at is that the Roe effect is likely to increase the GOP advantage over time. "The fastest-growing segment of our population is 2 and under," Teri Morgan, head of the GOP in exurban Delaware County, Ohio, tells the paper. How will they vote in 2020 and beyond?
Along similar lines, The Economist notes that "the Democratic Party is ceasing to be a mom-and-pop party":
Phillip Longman of the New America Foundation points out that the fertility rate in the Kerry states is 12% lower than in the Bush states. Vermont, the home of Howard Dean and perhaps the most left-wing state in the country, produces an annual average of 49 children for every 1,000 women of child-bearing age; in Utah, where 71% of the population voted for Mr Bush, the figure is 91. In deep-blue cities such as San Francisco and Seattle you find more dogs than children.
It may be that the Democrats' only long-term hope would be a constitutional amendment enfranchising Canine-Americans.
Anchors
Away
Dan Rather is retiring as anchorman of the "CBS Evening News," CBS
News reports in a story it classifies as "entertainment." (Don't worry,
Fox
has the story too, so you can believe it.) Rather became a household name earlier
this year when he aired a story on "60 Minutes" about President Bush's
National Guard service that was based on fabricated documents, and he will stay
at "60 Minutes" even after leaving the evening news.
Hey, wasn't someone supposed to be investigating that whole fraudulent-documents deal? Reader Peter Rice speculates it may be nearing conclusion: "we might expect the long-awaited 'report' about Dan's fake documents might be released at 5:25 p.m. on Wednesday, just before Thanksgiving Day, to ensure minimal news coverage and comments."
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that CNN has hired Jonathan Klein, onetime executive director of CBS News, as its new president for U.S. news. Back in September, Klein defended Rather with the following infamous quote: "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances [at '60 Minutes'] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing." Will he bring "60 Minutes"-style standards to bear at CNN?
Someone
Should Trim the Hedges
Chris Hedges, a New York Times reporter, gave a speech at the annual conference
of the Association of Opinion Page Editors, in which he blasted his own paper
for being insufficiently anti-American. Chris Reed of the Orange County Register
reports on The American Spectator's Web site:
"We're absolutely reviled around the world, as we should be," Hedges said. "Our only friends are war criminals"--a reference, he explained, to Ariel Sharon and Vladimir Putin.
America's amoral, bloodthirsty ways and the hate they generate would be much plainer to the American people, Hedges said, if only so many journalists weren't "trapped" by the government's war clichés and oriented to a Washington-centric view of the world. This group, he said, included his bosses at the Times.
"There was absolutely no interest in my newspaper in presenting the views of the French" as the U.S. moved toward war in Iraq, Hedges said. Instead, there was lots of guffawing over anti-French jokes, which he termed "racist."
Who knew? The New York Times' newsroom is a place where mockery of France is so severe that a heroic, hardy, death-defying war correspondent would consider it tantamount to workplace harassment.
The Reuters "news" service, meanwhile, considers it newsworthy that former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, a Hedges colleague, thinks the Bush administration's policies are "dangerous." The Reuters "report" contains this hilarious observation:
Krugman is currently taking some time off from journalism to write and promote the second installment of his latest project--economics textbooks aimed at making the science more accessible to college students.
If Reuters thinks what Krugman does is "journalism"--note the absence of scare quotes--maybe Hedges would be happier working there than at the Times.
Homer Nods
Yesterday's
item on Yasser Arafat (since corrected) should have stated, "Arafat
is in stable condition after dying at a Paris hospital," not "Ararat."
We inadvertently brought the mountain to Mohammed.
And here's an update: As of today, Arafat remains in stable condition after dying in a Paris hospital.
He's
Got High Hopes
Reuters quotes Ron Artest, the Indiana Pacers forward who's been suspended from
basketball for fighting with fans in Detroit, as telling People magazine: "I'm
trying to be positive. I'm a big fan of the Nobel Peace Prize."
Well, Ron, we admire you for setting your sights high. But if you want a Nobel Peace Prize, throwing a few punches is woefully inadequate. You're at least going to have to start blowing people up or something.
Blame
the Experts!
"Experts Say We're All to Blame: Violence in Sports Called Sign of Times"--headline,
Boston Herald, Nov. 23
Chilean
Whines--II
Yesterday we
noted the kerfuffle in which President Bush had to rescue his Secret Service
guard from a pack of Chileans. Now blogger Napoleon Cole has video of the incident.
The narration is in a foreign language, presumably Chilean.
Who's
Intolerant?
"The Air Force Academy's longtime football coach has agreed to remove a
Christian banner from the team's locker room after school administrators announced
they would do more to fight religious intolerance," the Associated Press
reports.
If they're removing Christian banners, shouldn't that read "to fight for religious intolerance"?
What
Would We Do Without Top U.S. Generals?
"Search for Osama bin Laden Continues: Top US General"--headline,
Agence France-Presse, Nov. 22
Bismillah!
No, We Will Not Let You Go
"Queen Unveils Anti-Terror Measures"--headline, CNN.com, Nov. 23
The
Pope Must Have Some Divisions After All
"Mass Offensive Launched South of Baghdad"--headline, Associated Press,
Nov. 23
An
Ornamental Role
"Lynne Cheney Tops National Christmas Tree"--headline, Associated
Press, Nov. 23
It's
No Fun Being a Legal Alien
"A year-old state law that qualifies illegal immigrants for cheaper in-state
tuition rates so they can better afford college also has some unintended beneficiaries:
80 international students on temporary visas, who, this fall, also get to pay
the lower costs," reports the Seattle Times.
OK, maybe we're a little slow, but why is it a problem if legal aliens have the same benefits as illegal ones?
You
Don't Say
"Crying on the Job Can Affect Credibility"--headline, Corpus Christi
(Texas) Caller-Times, Nov. 22
This
Just In
"Salvation Army to Help Needy"--headline, Dayton Daily News, Nov. 23
Why
Not Just Ride to the Airport Together?
"Some Americans Hope to Meet Spouse on Flights"--headline, Reuters,
Nov. 23
If
It's a Fine Story, Why the Correction?
"Correction: Tar Death-Fine Story"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 22
Why
Can't Jeanny Read?
Here's a rather frightening story from Versailles, France, reported in London's
Guardian:
French employees will accuse a US multinational in court today of discrimination, claiming that they are being forced to speak English.
They say General Electric Medical Systems is sidelining the large proportion of its workforce who speak little or no English. It encourages them to work with company documents and instruction manuals written in English.
"The company has an American ideology which has been accepted by a lot of the French managers, who think it is chic and looks good to speak English, even to their French colleagues," Jocelyne Chabart, a secretary, said yesterday. . . .
There is a safety issue involved, [GEMS officials] add, because the company makes medical x-ray equipment. "If the technician putting the equipment together doesn't understand the instruction manual, which is in English, the results could be very dangerous," Ms Chabart said.
If Frenchmen can't read instruction manuals for medical equipment, it's probably a good idea to stay out of French hospitals. Could it be that Yasser Arafat died of illiteracy?
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Geoff Faust, Bennett Stern, Lucian Gillis, Paul Dyck, Ethel Fenig, Tom Linehan, Joe Dispenza, Naftali Friedman, John Williamson, Mark Van Der Molen, Michael Segal, John Dubas, Alan Ridgeway, David Bookless, Brent Silver, Dan O'Shea, Richard Miniter, Monty Krieger, Jonathan Kahan, Tom Havens, Richard Belzer, Kathleen Myalls, Joel Goldberg, Samuel Walker, M. Gilbertson, Ed Lasky, Gary Simmerman, Jeffrey Shapiro, Sheila Rehbein, David Feldman, Jeff Meek, Frank Buchwalder, Len Lisenbee, Tom Lomino, David Merrill, John Mowat, Fred Beverly, Aaron Dickey, Richard Haisley, George Kooshian, Erik Andresen, Brendan Schulman, Michael Kingsley, Steven Jackson, Curt Strubhar, John Kasel, Philip Zukowski, David Chamnberlin, Skip King and Drew Anderson. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Fred Barnes: An insurgent president takes on the Washington establishment.
- Brendan Miniter: The House kills an intel plan that would have made fighting terror harder.
- Russ Smith: Baltimore has lots to offer--especially if you like trains.
